//------------------------------// // Cheese - Travel // Story: Two Minds // by Thethhron //------------------------------// Seas and Swamps                  A week had passed since I'd fallen to the island. The morning I was scheduled to leave, Free Speech met me in the bar below. Over the course of the week, we’d become pretty good friends and she loved my singing. Apparently, earth music was all the rage since the founding pirates' trip around Equestria. It was interesting that people thought the leader would have been some kind of leader on Earth, since he was one here. If he had been, he certainly wasn’t world-renowned or close to where I resided. “Morning Effy.” “Morning Cheese. Glad I don’t have to cast that spell for you anymore.” “Me too. I hate not being able to do things for myself. What's crackin'?” “A letter from Celestia arrived for you when I woke up this morning.” Free Speech had mastered the art of sending and receiving letters while in school - special talent and all - and was one of three or four ponies that essentially acted like the post office for the island. Because of this, the island didn’t need any pegasi to cross the sea travel for mail, removing a large amount of the danger. Unfortunately, sometimes letters arrived at awkward times during the day - such as while she was sleeping or in the shower. Apparently, she has even woken up buried in paper once, early on in her work here. “Really? Well, let’s have a look.” Dear Cheese,         Your suggestions regarding the nature of humans is much appreciated. I hope to learn even more from you when you arrive here, as we will have much to discuss. I am, in fact, planning on opening a clinic for the humans who have arrived, many of which have problems from their past on your home world.         The fact that you express no knowledge of any god or the game we are playing causes me some worry. First, it makes me wonder just what other power could have brought you here. But it also makes me worry for you. If you are not a piece but still from another land, the entire game could be upset. Other gods may find you to be a great threat to their progress and decide to attack. Unlike others brought here, there is no rule preventing you from being permanently removed.         However, as you seem to be a far bit more sensible than many other humans here and I have need of your help, I have an offer. There is no rule stating that a god can’t choose a human in the world, so long as he lacks a contract. What I propose, so as to ensure your safe travel, is to accept you as a piece of mine for the game, until such a time as I can find you a more fitting benefactor.. This will prevent you from becoming a direct target, should any god see fit to make an attempt on your life, though being in the game has risks all it's own. If this is amenable to you, please respond with a letter. Sincerely, Princess Celestia “...Well that’s an interesting piece of news….” “What is?” “Something about a game played by gods? You know anything about it?” Effy just looked at me in confusion. “Thought so. Eh, whatever. Help from Celestia might not be a bad idea. I’ll send her a response later.” “You’re getting help from the princess!?” Effy looked shocked. I guess I had just kinda dropped a huge bomb there…. “Actually, yeah, wait a minute. I’m just getting help from the princess??? Just like that?” I stared back at Effy. This was actually a kind of exciting turn of events. “How did you manage that?” “I guess being human is just that important or something? I mean it’s partly because she needs the expertise I have on human psychology but… Eh, whatever. I’ll write her letter while I’m on the ship.” “Oh, that’s the other reason I’m here. I’m actually taking a vacation to head back to Canterlot and visit my parents. So I’ll be joining you!” “Cool! I’ll take some company on the trip. I’d probably be kinda bored otherwise.” Tucking the letter away,  I said my goodbyes to the barkeep and the few regulars I’d come to know. All of them were sad to see me leave but I assured them I’d be back at some point. They were glad to hear it. Apparently my singing left quite an impression. Free speech and I took our leave. “How long are you going to be visiting them for?” “A few days. Can’t spend too long away from my job at the island. I’ve been trying to get them to come down once they’ve retired. I think they like their mahogany apartment though....What?” As soon as she said mahogany, I adopted a completely blank face. “...Maaahogany.” Oh wait, I don't have a face. This is much less funny now. “Wha-” “Maaaaaahogany” Entirely necessary continuatoin. “Right, I’ll just accept that as a thing you do.” “Hehe. So who is taking your place while you’re gone? Is the island still going to be able to get mail?” “Oh they will. Special talents aren’t necessarily unique after all. There are a couple of other ponies with long range capability...but I have the farthest reach. I can actually send mail all the way across the Equestrian continent.” “Wow. that’s quite a range. Have you ever sent one that far while you were here?” “Well, maybe not all the way across, but I did get a letter to Appleloosa once. It was a bit of a strain but I managed it.” “That’s pretty impressive. I have no idea what that entails, nor do I want to try. But awesome.” By this point we had reached the docks. Effy left her bags in the pile of luggage to go on board the ship. We made our way on the ship, as I took in its appearance. It was similar to a blimp in many respects but this particular ship was for supplies. There were a few passenger rooms, which were what me and Effy were staying in, but most of the hold was used for food and exports. The hull-area was shaped more like a ship for sailing than the enclosed compartments attached to blimps back on Earth. Once we were on board, I was surprised to find a familiar face among the guards. “Connor! What are you doing on board?” “Hey Cheese and...oh.” Connor got that lovely, ever so slight pink tinge to his cheeks, while he frowned. “You.” “Geez, you got that stick shoved up there again?” Effy laughed. I should probably explain. Free Speech did, in fact, visit Connor with me a couple more times over the past week. Every time, Connor had put on a bit of a blush and done his little tsundere bit while Effy taunted him. He got better at controlling himself around her during the second visit and they even began a small friendship, though I’m sure Connor didn’t see it as such. Nor would he willingly admit his attraction to her. This made it that much more hilarious for me. I’m going to ship the fuck out of these two. “Hey now, don’t make fun of him. His might be the next bed you sneak into while drunk.” Effy’s eyes went wide as a blush rushed forward. Connor’s ears perked up. “Say what now?” “Why did you have to mention that! I said I was sorry…” “Ohohohoho! And I didn’t say I was mad either, did I?” “Hold on, what’s this about sneaking into beds?” Connor’s face was fighting between open interest and cautious worry. “Well, you see-” “NOOOO, don’t say it!” “Are you going to stop telling him he’s got a stick shoved up his bum?” “I...but...Fine, tell him.” She groaned, turning away from the conversation. “Wow, she must really like insulting you. Weird. That first night I spent in the hotel? She got drunk and snuck into my bed.” “What!?” I could hear his neck snap as he stared at Effy. “Haha, jealous?” Another snap as he turned back to me. “NO! I ju-” “Shhh, it’s okay. nothing happened. In case you hadn’t noticed I’m a solid mass of crystal. I couldn’t attempt anything if I wanted to.” He began sputtering. “N- ju- I- You- NNNNG!” His eyes bugged out as he tried to come up with a response. Suddenly he began staring upwards, as though locked onto a mental image. Sure enough, that blush of  his began spreading over his face. “Oooo~, someone’s thinking about you Effy.” She turned back to the conversation, having calmed herself down enough to giggle a little at what I had been saying. “Ah, so he is. Gonna do something about that, guard boy?” She smirked as his attention was drawn out of whatever he had been thinking about and back to us. “You-” His eyes are twitching “Gaah! Stupid- I’ll talk to you later!” With that he sped off to some other part of the ship to hide his embarrassment. Maybe it was a little much. “I never tire of that.” Effy laughed. “I think we really should be a little nicer to him. What happens if one of us falls overboard and he’s too mad to do anything?” She waved me off with her hoof. “Eh, another guard will catch us. Besides, he doesn’t seem the type to do that.” “True enough. Well, I’m going to go find my room. Catch you when I’m done.” Later that night, I spent some time out watching the stars above the planet. Some of the constellations - the Pleiades and Pegasus, for instance - were the same but I couldn’t be sure just how many. I only remembered a few from the astronomy course I took freshman year. Connor was on guard duty at the stern of the ship. I heard a clip clop behind me and shifted my vision to see Free Speech coming up behind me. “I always did enjoy the nighttime.” Free Speech stood next to me, staring up at the stars. “Really? I was always under the impression ponies kept away from the night because of Nightmare Moon stories.” “A long time ago, that was the case. But in the past 200 years or so, that’s stopped being true. With Luna’s return 2 and half years ago, ponies avoiding the night has pretty much stopped altogether. Sure, she’s a little scary and not everyone trusts her, but for the most part, she’s become accepted, if not completely liked.” “Oh. That’s certainly an improvement. I do like her more than Princess Celestia, even if I don’t know them all that well.” “You only arrived here a week ago. How would you know about them beyond what the books in the library told you?” Shit, do they know about the show? Eh, whatever, doesn’t matter. “Ponies have movies, right? Imagine, if you will, an electronic contraption that plays very short movies all day long, with each movie being a different, ongoing story called a ‘show’. Following me?” Effy nodded. “Each week, a new ‘episode’ or super-short movie is released to continue the story from the previous week. All kinds of shows exist as entertainment for humans, some of which are played by actual actors and others are simply animated drawings, normally done by using of electronic contraptions that we have created that are much more complex.” “Okay....and this deals with the Princesses how?” “Just explaining. Don’t freak out.” I paused ”Equestria is the setting for one of those shows, which follows the Elements of Harmony.” Effy stared at me. I could see the gears turning in her head and centimeter by centimeter her mouth formed a silent “oh” as she reached the conclusion. Eyes wide as saucers, she opened her mouth and a stream of questions flew out, almost faster than I could pick out. “Calm down, one question at a time. No, we can’t ‘see’ your world from ours. It’s an entirely weird coincidence that we know appear to have fairly accurately depicted stuff about Equestria. I should mention there hasn’t been a lot about most of the world though. The show mostly focuses on Ponyville and sometimes Canterlot.” Her excitement visibly fell when I said this. “So… You’ve probably never seen me before. I guess that’s okay, I’m not that important when compared with the Princesses after all.” She sighed. “Hey, you’re my friend now at least and that makes you important. Besides, you don’t wanna know what you might have been made into if you were on that show. Some of its fans are more rabid and like to produce, well, porn of it. I like you as you are, without any of that taint.” The smile returned to her face as she stared back out at the stars. ”You’re such a sweet-talker.” “Really? Never been told that before.” We resumed our stargazing and Free Speech began pointing out constellations I didn’t know about. Some of them were similar to earth but others had completely different names, such as the Starswirl constellation, which funnily enough, replaced Cassiopeia. It felt good to just stand and talk with someone. Back on Earth, conversations like this were hard to come by for me. I was they guy people would laugh with, sure. But just sit and talk with? I’m too awkward for that. I never feel like I have anything to talk about. A shout from the bow of the ship interrupted our conversation. “Storm! 25 degrees to port!” “Captain, it’s changing course too!” “What!?” I hovered to the front of the ship. Sure enough, on the horizon - not more than 10 miles away and moving at incredible speeds - a black thunderhead rolled along towards us. Underneath the cloud poured immense amount of rain. Lightning veins coursed through the clouds every so often, illuminating the sky around it. “50 degrees starboard!” As the airship made it’s course in the opposite direction I could see the cloud suddenly blowing to intercept. A corner - a corner - formed as the clouds changed direction. There was something going on here. Especially since the massive thunderhead was a lot closer than it had been when I first looked. It couldn’t be more than a mile off now. “It’s no use captain! That cloud isn’t natural!” Wait, why am I still out here? I should get below deck! The storm was only seconds from being on us when I jetted for the door, grabbing Effy on my way. She too had been entranced by the strange behavior of the storm. “Brace for impa-” Just as I got to the door, the ship violently swerved and I smacked into the wall instead, dropping my unicorn friend in the process.The wind whipped about the guards above deck, tearing at their armor. Every new gust rocked the ship as people scrambled to something to hold onto. I wasn’t having problems floating but actually keeping with the ship as it shook about - I certainly couldn’t get to the bloody door. Every time I tried, something would hit me and push me off course. A scream brought me back to the fact that I wasn’t the only one with problems. On the port side of the ship, Free Speech clung for dear life onto the handrail. Kahner noticed from where he was holding onto a crate too. Both of us rushed for her at the same time, even as supplies toppled around the ship; one box went over board, knocking a lifeboat off it’s ropes. I reached her first and grabbed Effy in my magic. I about had her on board when another gust jostled the ship. Suddenly, I was no longer hovering above the deck but above the ocean far below. In no time, another crate tripped over the rail and knocked against me, breaking my magic. As Free Speech and I fell, I heard Kahner give a yelp; looking back, I could see him reaching overboard for us. Even as I regained control over myself and my magic, lightning struck the side of the ship. Kahner obviously felt some of the heat and electricity from it and passed out over the railing, following myself and Effy downwards. I dove for their falling forms, catching them slowly after 50 feet. My magic was dropping to less than quarter capacity- But when I spun to return to the ship, it was already gone, swept away by the storm. Cursing my luck or whatever was directing the storm, I dropped down with my cargo to near the ocean level. If my magic was going to run out, I didn’t want my friends falling from a height where water acted like concrete. Thankfully, I spied the lifeboat that had fallen overboard before. As much as it rocked in the waves and wind, it appeared to be mostly undamaged from it’s fall, at the cost of being half filled with water. Delving into my quickly dwindling magic supply, I removed the water from the boat in one go and set my passengers down, seating myself towards the stern of the small boat. Kahner remained unconscious, but breathing, and Free Speech appeared to have simply passed out at some point. This did nothing to alleviate the danger of our situation, as the rain soaked my compatriots to the bone, with the waves getting larger by the minute. Hoping my week of self-enforced magic training wouldn’t go to waste, I muttered “Motus” to myself, and was glad when the boat began moving forward. Silently thanking my memory for its  accuracy on video games, I began steering the boat in what would preferably prove to be out of the storm. The heavy rain made this all the more difficult and every five minutes or so, I’d have to dump the water back overboard. I’m not sure how long we went on like that, but eventually the winds lessened and the rain stopped coming down. Light peeked out from beyond the clouds; we had traveled through the whole night. I was spent. I could feel the last dregs of magic holding me awake and knew I needed to stop. As the boat ceased its magical drain on me, I quickly found myself lost to the land of dreams. “....e…….ese…….CHEESE!”         My sight came rushing back. The sun blazed a burning orange on the horizon, out over the ocean. My voice wasn’t working and the tip of my body glowed blue as I recast my speech spell. I hadn’t fully recovered yet but I was feeling better. “I’m up, I’m up. What happened?” We were sitting on a beach, the boat pulled onto shore a short distance from where I was. Kahner was not in sight, while Free Speech sat next to me. “Phew, you’re awake. We were worried that…. Well, you’re awake now. As for what happened, we just woke up in the boat and it had stopped raining. This shoreline was nearby, so we paddled over to it as best we could. That was about an hour ago. Kahner is out looking for food and wood.” “Do we know where we are?” “No, I have no idea. We are near a swamp though.” “Hey, you got him up?” Kahner wandered out from the trees bearing wood and what appeared to be fruit of some kind. “Yeah, he just woke up.” Effy and I moved to meet Kahner on the beach. “That’s some good news.” Kahner frowned as he began to arrange the logs for a fire. Effy turned to him questioningly. “What is it?” Kahner sighed at her question as doubt fell over his face “I can’t be completely sure but… I think we’re in the Black Marsh. Gah!” Kahner’s right arm spasmed and locked up for a moment, dropping the log he was carrying. Seems the lightning really did a number on him. Looking closer, I could see the scorch marks on his clothing - a black spot on his arm marked what was probably the entry point for the lightning. The exit was probably on one of his feet. Effy paled at the sight, but moved over to him, trying to knead out the muscles in his arm. “The Black Marsh, huh?” I wondered aloud. “From what you told me, it seems like a pretty nasty place.” I levitated the rest of the logs to the fire as Kahner continued to get his arm worked by the unicorn. We fell quiet as I sparked the fire with my magic. My thoughts traveled back to the storm. Something was controlling the wind and those clouds. The angle and speed were far too unnatural, even if a whole team of pegasi were pushing it. Celestia’s letter popped into my mind. Was it a “god” then? I don’t see why Celestia would be lying and it would explain the impossible weather. I should probably take her up on her offer. “Hey Free Speech, got any paper?